wfn.org | British Christians march against atrocities in India

["EAUK Press Office" <press@eauk.org>]

For Immediate Release: 6th March 1999

Around 2,000 Christians today staged a silent march in protest at 
the increasing levels of persecution being carried out against 
Christians in India.  

The March of Silent Witness saw Chinese, British, African and 
Caribean Christians join with mostly Asian Christians to brave the 
London rain and march past the Indian High Commission in the 
Aldwych.  Protest letters from the Alliance of Asian Christians, 
Indian Christian Concern and the Evangelical Alliance UK were 
handed into the High Commission by a delegation from the march. 

A fleet of coaches had brought Christians from across England to 
the march and organisers expressed gratitude to the Metropolitan 
Police for the professional and courteous way in which they policed 
the march.

March organiser Pradip Sudra, of the Alliance of Asian Christians, 
said: "We march in silence because we speak on behalf of the 
dead.  The voice of the dead is silence."  The protests follow 
increasing levels of persecution against Christians in India.  
Atrocities include nuns being raped, priests executed, Bibles burnt, 
churches demolished, educational institutes destroyed and 
religious people harassed.  In one incident a corpse was dug 
out of a grave.

In late January, Australian missionary Graham Staines, who has worked in leprosy relief in India fo
r 30 years, was burnt alive in his car with his two sons.  An angry mob of Hindu extremists prevent
ed them from escaping.

A packed prayer vigil was held at the Emmanuel Christian Centre in Westminster following today's ma
rch.  The church itself was packed to capacity with many people forced to stand at the back.  A fur
ther 150 took part in t
he church's foyer.

Senior Church leaders from a range of denominations spoke at the multi-cultural service.

Amongst them, Baptist minister Rev Robert Amess, chairman of the Evangelical Alliance UK, represent
ing over one million Christians in 30 denominations throughout the UK said: "Who I am is of no impo
rtance.  I come as a re
presentative of the Christian church in Britain and Northern Ireland to tell you we have felt your 
pain.  We have prayed for you and cried with you."

He told the congregation of his visit to India a few years ago when showed him St Thomas' Hill wher
e the apostle Thomas, the one who doubted Jesus' resurrection, had preached just outside Madras.  "
I have just been remind
ed that India has known the Gospel a lot longer than we in England.  You are our fathers and mother
s in Christ."

He added: "Faith in Christ is many things.  It is life and peach and love and hope.  Faith in Chris
t needs freedom to speak.  We must be free to be and to do what God has called us to do.  Jesus sai
d we are like light on 
a hill.  We must be seen.  He said we are like yeast in bread, we must have an effect on society.  
He said we were salt of the earth.  Salt adds flavour to food, it prevents meat going off and if yo
u put it in an open wou
nd it hurts."

Rev Arlington Trotman, of the Churches Commission for Racial Justice, representing 25 denominations
 in England and Wales, said: "The essence of the Christian faith demands that we must stand togethe
r and sternly set our f
ace against discrimination and meaningless suffering wherever it exists.  

"We must not tire in opposing injustice and yet it seems that the gospel invites us to see sufferin
g as central to the Christian faith.  Jesus Christ himself suffered for us."

Anthony Lobo, a consultant with the Catholic Association for Racial Justice, said: "When God's Chur
ch is being persecuted in India it is persecuted here, because we are one.  Today we come together 
as one and we pray as o
ne.  When we pray as one God will pour out His Holy Spirit and our prayers will be answered."

Peter Loo, chairman of the Emmanuel Christian Centre church council told those at the service that 
the last year had been one of great concern for the Church throughout the world. He said: "The Chur
ch of Jesus Christ is f
amiliar with persecution.  The church was born out of persecution.  Early Christians were accused o
f being cannibals.  They were accused of offering children for sacrifice.  Early Christians were th
rown as food for hungry
 lions.

"As we come to the start of a new millennium we thought it would be a time for the world to remembe
r 2,000 years of Jesus' birth.  But instead we are surprised to see that cases of persecution are o
n the increase.

"The gospel of Jesus Christ will not be destroyed by persecution and the and of Jesus Christ will n
ot be destroyed by persecution.  Saul, one of the greatest persecutors of the Church became Paul, o
ne of its greatest apos
tles." 

He said that when people persecute the Church they persecute Jesus himself.  "When God challenged S
aul he did not say 'why do you persecute my Church', he said: 'why do you persecute me.'  When Saul
 asked who it was speak
ing to him God replied: 'I am Jesus, the one you persecute.'

"I want to appeal to the conscious of our persecutors: Why are you persecuting the Lord Jesus Chris
t."

Taj Bhatti, general secretary of Indian Christian Concern, described 
the march as a success saying "We expressed our feelings to the 
Indian High Commission and asked them to pass those on to the 
government in India.  This march has helped us do that."

NOTE: This press release is issued by the Evangelical Alliance UK 
on behalf of the Alliance of Asian Christians.

ENDS 

For further information, contact: 

Gavin Drake, gdrake@eauk.org 
0171 207 2117 or + 44 171 207 2117 

or 

Jill Howard, jhoward@eauk.org 
0171-207 2116 or + 44 171 207 2116 

Evangelical Alliance UK, 
Whitefield House, 
186 Kennington Park Road, 
London, SE11  4BT 

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